Port Louis, Capital of Mauritius,
Sprawls Around Its Racecourse
On race days the island spills sari-clad Indians,
beribboned Creoles, and Paris-frocked French-Mauri
tians onto the wide Champ de Mars (pages 81, 94).
Cupped by steep hills (lower right), the course occu
pies the crater of a long-dead volcano. Mauritians
have erected an obelisk (left) to a French governor,
the Comte de Malartic (1792-1800), and a statue
(center) to Britain's King Edward VII (1901-1910).
the ship's ladder, awaiting passengers going
ashore-nine of us all told. Cargo lighters
already were off-loading mountains of goods.
Mauritius, 1,760 miles from Durban, South
Africa, 570 miles from French Madagascar,
must import manufactured necessities as well
as most of its food. More than half a million
people crowd the island's 716 square miles.
Not that this rugged volcanic outcrop, 40
miles long by 27 miles wide at its broadest,
is not fertile. But its sprawling fields and
great plantations grow one main crop-sugar
- in rich lava soil (page 88).
Half a million tons of sugar, squeezed from
thick stalks of cane in Mauritian mills, are
shipped out each year. On the price it brings
depends the island's prosperity. Most of it
goes to the United Kingdom.
Sugar Tolerates Hurricanes
This all-eggs-in-one-basket situation pre
vails simply because no other major crop will
yield so bountiful a return as sugar cane and
also recover so quickly from damage done
by the dreaded Indian Ocean cyclones.
The smell of sugar met my boat halfway
to the landing. Big flat-roofed warehouses
lined the waterfront. Quays were piled with
fat bags of sugar.
My first impression of Port Louis was that
it had seen better days. Once-elaborate old
mansions now sagged behind peeling paint
and rusting iron grillwork; other buildings
were sheathed with flattened gasoline cans.
In the commercial section, shops and office
entrances crowded together. People hurrying
to work filled the narrow streets. Taxi horns
brayed. Hucksters hawked bargains. Sugar
brokers' clerks carried twisted paper cones
holding samples.
In the Place d'Armes facing the harbor
stands a bronze statue of Mahe de Labour
donnais, "Founder of Mauritius," one of the
most remarkable colonizers France has ever
produced. He holds an unfolded chart of the
"Ile de France," the name the French gave
to Mauritius in 1715, five years after Dutch
settlers abandoned the island.
The French East India Company in 1722
sent colonists from near-by Bourbon (La
Reunion). In 1735, when fewer than 1,000
people lived on Ile de France, Labourdonnais
arrived as governor. Port Louis was only a
hut encampment, and in the hills roamed wild
"maroons," runaway slaves of the Dutch.
Labourdonnais built a capital at Port Louis,
constructed roads and fortifications, also ships
and a harbor. He subdued the maroons, en
couraged sugar cane cultivation, and founded
the island's future.
"We could use a bit of the old boy today,"
said Harry Ardill, government education offi
cial who joined my party.
"The population
keeps growing, but the output of the planta
tions has a top limit. It would take Mahe
there to find the solution!"